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Forging ahead with faith …

This is going to be a short and sweet post. Mainly, because I don’t have much to blog about. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks and I now finally feel put together where I can start really focusing on my running, health and extracurricular activities.

Well, actually it’s been more like the past month with my Grandma’s illness, passing and post-past “stuff.” If that makes sense? Having last weekend’s run and trip to Vegas helped mentally, but the grieving process is tricky. It doesn’t have much of a timetable. You can’t just say … okay … one week after the passing it’s back to regular life. I tried that and … yeah … it doesn’t work. It’s more like going back to regular life with an absence and it will take to get used to.

But, running has always given me a haven or time where I can iron many of those feelings out. And, once again it’s proving just that. It did during my Mom’s cancer treatments, my Aunt’s passing and now my Grandma’s passing. It also helps a lot knowing what’s next and what this life is in the scheme of eternity.

I think it’s been a bit harder for me this go around because I don’t feel fully whole like I did with my Mom and Aunt. I’ve had a hard time dealing with my thyroid and testosterone issues and how it’s affecting my life. I’ve been trying to tackle it with enthusiasm and it’s kinda of hard to maintain that with next to no energy or stamina. I am 30-40lbs. over where I like to be during race season and it’s hard not to feel like Fat Josh sometimes when all I want to do is sleep and jog (GASP … I know!)

I have faith that I will rebound and get my thyroid and testosterone where it needs to be. I think what’s frustrating is I can’t do it quickly. I had a doctor appointment a couple of weeks ago and he told me similarly, it’s not a quick fix. It’s not going to simply be a matter of calories in, calories out. It’s about balancing my body and then feeding it the foods that will promote a healthy thyroid and testosterone.

They already switched my thyroid medication and I had a blood panel down last Friday testing EVERYTHING. I had to Google the majority of the list and luckily I have a brother who is a doctor and could give me some understanding of the tests. So I feel great about that direction, a lot.

Another thing that I am focusing on right now is my food. I hate calling it a diet, because really it isn’t. It’s creating or re-introducing healthy habits into my everyday life. I am following a plan that focuses on whole foods, balance and what’s in season — something I’ve been trying to work towards for a while. On top of that I am also incorporating the principles of Dr. Mark Hyman’s Ultra-Metabolism.

I am a big fan of Mark Hyman and his approach to curing ailments with food. His approach to food is that it’s a drug and you can either abuse it or use it properly. So, I am taking what I am following with my food plan and personalizing it with foods that will help me to naturally supplement or ease the affects of the hypothyroidism and low-testosterone. Ideally, I’d love to manage both naturally, I know that might not be possible, but I can at least minimize it’s affects.

And, to help me manage all of that I am also getting back into the habit of tracking it on MyFitnessPal. I used it late last year fairly religiously, but I know it’s a great tool that I just need to use. While reading Mark Hyman’s book I’ve noticed two things though … 1) I don’t eat enough on the weekends and 2) I don’t eat enough calories during the weekday. It’s putting my body in starvation mode and I need to avoid that, because that’s when the dangers of overeating at night or later on happen. It has nothing to do with willpower or weakness, it’s just a natural human instinct to do so.

So that’s kinda of the focus this upcoming. Well, that and just promoting healthy habits to make and keep. I am excited for this upcoming month. Not just to balance things I need to, but also find answers with my testosterone and thyroid that have plagued me for over a year now.